Posted on 10/08/2004 9:47:53 PM PDT by wagglebee
Fox News Channel debate analyst Fred Barnes said Bush's performance against John Kerry Friday night was sure to be a morale booster for Republicans.
"Into about the third half hour of this debate, if you cupped your ear you could hear Republicans all over the country and Bush supporters and the White House staff, all giving a great sigh of relief," Barnes told panel anchor Brit Hume. "Because the president did so much better than he did in the first debate."
While Kerry wasn't quite as good as he had been during last week's debate, said Barnes, "He was still good - [but] Bush was much better." He pronounced the verbal duel a tie.
Co-panelist Morton Kondracke disagreed:
"I think Kerry won this debate as he won the first debate. Kerry was much more aggressive and the president was basically on the defense. He didn't have new arguments. He wasn't as facile as he should have been."
Kondrake complained that for the second time in a row, Bush had failed to raise the issue of Kerry's vote against the first Gulf War, which he has invoked repeatedly as a model effort of military action by a coalition force.
Fox analyst William Kristol said that while Bush improved, it may not have been enough to get the job done.
"If you think the president was doing OK and didn't need a win in this debate, he did fine," he said. "But it one thinks that Bush missed an awful lot of opportunities to go after Kerry in the first debate - and he had to make some of them up in this debate - I'm not sure he really succeeded."
Kerry is a slacker in the Senate. I just don't see any other way to see it. I would be embarrased to have missed as much work as he has missed.
Sorry. I meant Kondracke, not Barnes.
Well said. Bottom line: in the private sector, Kerry would have been fired for missing that much work.
Sean is now the the ONLY reason to watch FOX. Mort, Fred and Brit were a huge disappointment. I had to turn to Chris Matthews to get a fair report!
# BUSH DEFENDS IRAQ WAR: "We all thought there was weapons there, Robin. My opponent thought he had weapons... But Saddam Hussein was a unique threat. And the world is better off with him out of power."
# KERRY REBUTTAL: "I've never changed my mind about Iraq. I believed Saddam Hussein was a threat... But I would have used that force wisely... Not rushed to war without a plan to win the peace."
# THEN KERRY SAYS IRAQ WASN'T A THREAT: Says situation has gotten worse in Iran while Bush was "pre-occupied with Iraq where there wasn't a threat."
# KERRY SUGGESTS WITHOUT IRAQ WAR, OBL MIGHT BE CAUGHT: "If we used smart diplomacy we could saved $200 billion and Osama bin Laden might be in jail or dead."
THE CONFUSION CONTINUES . . .
I think Brit and his Beltway boys on FOXNEWS did a very poor analysis today. Listening to their SPIN opinions, I thought they were talking about a different debate than what we saw. They let me down again. After the VP debate, they also said that it was only a draw. Think these old men should be dumped!
Mort Kondracke is usually very fair, but sometimes he reverts to his liberal self. That's not meant to be a knock on Mr. Kondracke but just a fact. President Bush came back to us tonight after a brutal first debate. Thank you President Bush.
I agree. Since I canceled my cable TV, I've been a lot calmer. I don't miss the aggravation of wanting to scream at the TV screen over Democratic spin.
I thought Bush was awesome tonight. The President does best in the townhall type formats. He connects with the people, unlike John Fickle Kerry. I refuse to refer to John Kerry as 'Senator' because he refuses to talk in depth about his record in the Senate so I refuse to recognize him as a Senator!
On another note, yes, I am new to Free Republic. I've been visiting the site frequently and I finally registered tonight. This a great site. Keep up the great work!
I agree. I didn't hear any "sighing" tonight. I heard a whole bucnh of hollerin', cheerin' and stompin' feet hit the ground though.
At least Juan wasn't there.
There's always "woulda, shoulda, couldas" after a debate.
I wish Bush had really drove the point home about the intel cuts proposed by Kerry in 1993.
This was right after the WTC attack was mentioned.
He shouldn't have breezed through it. He should have reiterated that the WTC was attacked and Kerry proposed the cuts just months afterwards. He should have also mentioned that Kerry didn't even know what year the attack took place.
He even could have made the case that it was a miracle the towers didn't come down, and we were given a "second chance" and Kerry failed.
Of course Bush should have also brought up Kerry's vote against the '91 Gulf War when Kerry mentioned coalitions and such.
Other than that, I think Bush had a near perfect performance. I loved how defensive Kerry got when Bush brought up the 'L' word. He is clearly scared to death of the label.
I'm mystified by these conservative "experts" who say the debate was essentially a tie. Bush was so good that I'd say he embarrassed Kerry and made him look foolish at times. When Kerry said Bush 'owned' a lumber company Bush replied with: "that news to me". Could give many other examples but I'm going to bed.
I don't know where Bill Kristol was coming from tonight. Maybe he read Terry McAwful's criticism of Fox News and thought he needed to be mellow.
Kondracke and Kristol report: This just in, Bush can't swim.
ROTFLMAO! Fox news has taken a sharp left turn lately.
I emailed my displeasure to Speakout at Fox, Britt Hume and the Beltway Boys.
Yepper.. even Chrissie M said Bush won.
I actually witnessed sKerry speaking French to my wife's (and my former) hair dresser Isabel. He was one of the least attractive people I have ever seen. I like Isabel, but I decided to have someone else cut my hair, as she was getting too en-grained with sKerry, and Hillary.
P.S. My hair looks better than his :)
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